So very often, we GMs get a special idea in our head. “This time,” we think to ourselves, “I want to really wow my players with a new type of game, something I’ve never run before.” Maybe we watched a particularly good mystery show (Murder She Wrote, anyone?), or we’re getting a horror itch. My own version of this is that I quite frequently get the urge to run a powerful Force Unleashed-style Star Wars game, with force powers flying around like blaster bolts. We set out to tell a very narrow storyline. We are full of enthusiasm and can’t wait for the game to start.
A few sessions into the campaign, however, we start to waver. “I’ve been running this horror campaign forever and I’m starting to run out of inspiration.” “I just feel like throwing together a hack-and-slash dungeon for tonight, but that wouldn’t really fit my campaign idea.” Our glorious inspiration begins to fade. Usually, for me, this spells the death of a campaign. My groups over the years have all seen at least one version of the Force Unleashed-style game which tapers off after the first five or six sessions.
Let’s take a look at some causes of this problem, and some fixes you can apply to improve your genre-specific storytelling.
The Wandering Eye
GMs look at video games, novels, short stories, movies, television shows, and puppet theater productions, and pull them apart, usually unconsciously, to see what pieces they like and might want to incorporate into their own games. We get seduced by the stories we experience, and want to tell our own version. The embers of inspiration are kindled into a roaring flame within us, and we can’t wait to get started on creating and running a new game.
The best time for this to happen is between campaigns. The worst time for this to happen is during a campaign. How often is a GM between campaigns? Sometimes, not even a week.
What can we do to help brace up our inspiration? What could we be doing better?
Ask yourself, “Will I be able to stand this genre over and over?”
Not all genres lend themselves to being run over and over. Suspense and mystery can be hard to sustain for twenty or thirty sessions. People like answers. An example of this is the X-Files. Wildly popular, and yet look how hard it became to continue a believable mystery without answers. There are some pretty accurate memes about the writers’ plot gymnastics to get Scully to avoid seeing anything concrete. At some point during the thirty-session murder mystery campaign where you’re trying to decide whether the killer was a supernatural monster or a human monster, your players may just throw up their hands and say, “We give up.”
If you find you can’t stomach the idea of planning for this genre every single week for the foreseeable future, that’s perfectly acceptable. Better to know that now. Run a few sessions in another campaign and focus on this genre in one or two. Get a feel for it and how hard it is to plan and keep things exciting. Practice at the genre and get better, so you have the capacity and stamina to run it for a longer period of time.
Immerse yourself in the genre
Inspiration comes from things in our environment, typically. Before you start your campaign, locate plenty of resources that showcase the genre you’re wanting to run. Not just enough for a few days, but enough to last you several weeks. And keep looking for more. Really explore that genre in your recreational time. Go ahead, binge-watch all those seasons of Murder She Wrote while running that mystery campaign. If you’re running a lighthearted adventure for a younger crowd, invest in some Studio Ghibli movies and watch them over and over while planning. A horror campaign is an excellent excuse to watch Riddick, and Aliens, and every werewolf and vampire movie you can think of (except for those movies. You know what I mean). Saturate yourself with it. Don’t burn out on the genre, but keep a steady supply around at all times.
And try to narrow your field a bit, while you’re running that genre. If you’re running horror, don’t read novels about powerful heroes mowing down waves of enemies with ease, because you might be tempted to want to run those scenes. Stick to your genre while you’re running the campaign.
Keep the game short. You can always run a second arc afterward.
It’s easy to burn out on a specific genre. Most campaigns mix things up quite a bit. Sticking to one genre can be difficult and challenging. Every week you need to come up not just with inspiration, but the right inspiration for this campaign.
Run a few sessions. Find a hard number and stick close to it. Four or five sessions is a good aim. As noted above, you can always tack on a second adventure. Better to run a shorter campaign and have it conclude and leave a good memory, than to have players commit to a long campaign and then you lose it halfway through.
Get ready to second guess yourself. A lot.
Standard hack-and-slash campaigns don’t usually require too much thought. Adding a few cool ideas and genres into the mix makes it a little more complex, but not by much.
Running one entire campaign focused on a single genre is tough, not because people can’t do it, but because their habits are formed in opposition to their goal. We write a story and we’re excited about it, so we slap it onto the table. We skip around to keep the story fresh. And skipping around is the opposite of what you want to do here.
Writing for one genre means re-reading your work with a more critical eye. Sometimes, it means tearing up your notes and starting again. Get ready to question yourself and your skills. Does this evoke enough mystery? Did I throw in enough clues? Did I give too many? Is this scene frightening enough? Did I give them back any power after I strip it away from them for almost the entire session? Should I leave them powerless and afraid for several sessions? Will that get old? How will my players take that?
Writing for one genre is a lot of work, and the work load increases as time goes by because you are likely to use the most obvious and easy ideas first. The things most comfortable for you will be at the top of the pile. As an example, think of a murder mystery you would like to write. Now think of another, completely separate one. Now think of a third. Now think of a fourth. Now think of ten more. Make sure none of them are the same, because players will latch onto that and perhaps draw wrong conclusions that could drag the game wildly off course. Didn’t mean to imply linked killings? Too late, because the players noticed that this guy has a blue handkerchief, just like the killer three mysteries ago had. Clearly this is a blue-handkerchief-serial-killer-club story.
The opposite of this is to give yourself some leeway. Don’t burn yourself or your players out because you feel compelled to stick purely to your vision of the genre. Break it up with a little extra once in a while. A horror campaign can be refreshed and relieve some tension if the players find a vicious street gang to vent their frustrations on while still using the scene to gather clues.
Set some expectations.
This wouldn’t be a Setup for Success article without stating that you need to communicate with your players. Let them know what you want to do. Let them know your concerns about your limited experience in this genre. Let them know you need help curbing that wandering GM’s eye.
Another good point is to get their characters on the same page. If you’re planning to run a murder mystery game heavy on investigation, don’t have someone roll up a character who hates investigating and has zero patience, but tends to jump to conclusions and then act on them. If you’re running a combat-heavy game, you may want to discourage hardcore pacifist characters who refuse to even heal their party members during combat because of ideological conflicts.
None of this is to scare someone away from genres. Just make sure your head is in the game, and you’ve set yourself up to succeed.
Leave me a comment below letting me know some things you’ve done to prepare or keep yourself focused on running a genre.